Ludwig Erdman Bledow became the strongest player in Berlin around 1840. He organised the developing chess scene there and gathered around him a group of very talented players including Baron Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa, Paul Rudolf von Bilguer, Wilhelm Hanstein and Bernhard Horwitz.
This group became known as the Berlin Pleiades and was very influential on German chess subsequently.
He founded Schachzeitung (later Deutsche Schachzeitung), and his large library aided Lasa in writing the famous Handbuch des Schachspiels (together with Bilguer).

fred lennox: Bledow was one of the first masters Anderssen was to compete against. The results were disasterous for Adolf. 0-4-1. The surprised Anderssen was not discouraged. He reliezed his all out attacking style would not do at master level. He wrote his attacks were too bold and lacking careful preperation before the impact. He set to improve and did. A foreshadowing to his Morphy match 23 years latter.

thomastonk: <From the biography: He also helped found 'Deutsche Schachzeitung' ...>
He was in fact the founder of the 'Schachzeitung' (which became decades later the 'Deutsche Schachzeitung'), but died soon afterwards.

<... and inspired Lasa and Bilguer to write their famous 'Handbuch'.>
The idea of the handbook is not Bledow's. This idea is due to Lehfeldt, the editor of Bilguer's first work, and to Bilguer. However, von der Lasa was allowed to use Bledow's large library, when he wrote the Handbuch (I do not write that he finished it, because he did the majority of this work).

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